SAS Module 2

Structured Data- contains defined rows and columns. Examples: SAS, Oracle, Excel and others

Unstructured Data-no columns; must be imported. Examples: text, csv, and others

SAS Table- structured data that has rows and columns

Observation: row

Variable: Column

Each column (variable) must have a name type and length

Name: 1-32 characters, starts with letter or underscore, can contain numbers in addition, not case sensitive

Numeric Data Type: digits, minus sign (-), decimal point, scientific Notation (E). Dates are numeric data.

Character Data Type: letters, numbers, characters, special characters.

Length- Numeric is always 8 bytes (16 digits), character is 1-32,767 bytes

Example: proc contents data = "c://file location/folder/folder/tablename.sas7.bdat"; run;

allows you to view table attributes

a listing of the descriptor portion of the table (where table is stored, when created, number of rows and columns, variable list by type and length)

Also called metadata

LIBNAME [libref] [engine] [file location]; This is a global statement that does not require a run;

libref is what you choose to name the library. (8 character max, must start with underscore or character, can only contain letters, numbers, or underscores)

engine: type of data. Not really required but helpful if you are using specific file types like excel (xlsx)

file location: file path for the files being used

Libname statements are active and in effect until you delete the library refernce:

libname NameOfLibrary clear; <-- this is how you delete reference

Instead of proc contents data = "c://file location/folder/folder/tablename.sas7.bdat" write proc contents data = libraryname.tablename;